Everything is going well with the Project. Here is a brief update on our activities in January-February (you are partially aware of those):
- We started the year with dozen of quarterly and yearly reports (revenue, mandatory social security, property tax, Heifer, Labor Inspection, etc.) and then left for Berdzor just after the Armenian Christmas.
- We had a wonderful Christmas event there giving the Christmas boxes to 310 children of the community and the orphanage (one of the parents told me that only on that day they realized that the New Year has come...).
- Began the distribution for the people of Berdzor. The last distribution before this one in November of 2008 was for the villagers, as the weather at that time was warm for them to walk or ride those awful village roads. We planned so that this one in winter was for Berdzor habitants as they live close. The only slip in our planning was the estimation of the container's arrival which was based on transporting company's e-mail information (they told that the container will arrive in Poti, Georgia only on January 23, which meant that it
>would be in Yerevan by 25, when I would have completed the distribution). But the container arrived in Yerevan on January 21, so we had to come back earlier just after receiving a call from Yerevan office telling that the December container is arriving in two days. So we had to stop the distribution announcing those people who were next on the lists about its continuation in February and came back going to the customs terminal just the next day, leaving our warehouse/refrigerator in Berdzor for customs warehouse/freezer in the terminal where we worked 10 days, regular period given to all importers to complete the customs clearance. The good thing is, for the first time during the last 5 or more years we took the goods of the last container on January 30 from the customs warehouse straight to Berdzor. - We continued the distribution again (during the distribution I opened my eyes in the warehouse and went straight to bed from the warehouse working about 12-14 hours most of the time.
- When it's warmer and the villagers are our beneficiaries sometimes we work till 4:00 am, because they come from far villages, have no place to stay and will not leave without getting the aid. There were days during the distributions to the villagers in the past, when we left the cold warehouse at 7:00 am in February... this experience was another reason we don't plan distributions for the villagers in winter). This is very tiring, but, as I have told you once, the joy from the good done to the people and their words of gratitude compensate all the troubles... even the cold that I caught in the warehouse and suffered from awful flu for awhile.
- On Friday, February 13 the humanitarian aid committee (HAC -commission of 17 or more people representing all the ministries and departments in the government) adjacent to the government discussed our application for the VAT and customs duty exemption for 2009-2012. The meeting was good >and they accepted our application for 4 years. The chairperson of the committee spoke highly of AGAPE praising the work of the project and mentioning once again that this is the only international humanitarian organization in the region, and it had a great impact on the lives of the people. He told that had been in Berdzor recently, heard so much from the people about Agape and was amazed to know that teams from the States are coming to repair houses of the habitants.
- The last week of February was also very busy: one of our employees - Naghash, is going to get pension. That required from me and the accountant a titanic work starting from 2004 - we prepared and gave to the Ministry of Social security financial reports and so called claims to open account numbers on each employee in social security fund (2004,
>2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 - 5 times 9-15 employees each year, plus feeling in the claim
>forms, and seniority records for each employee starting from the day they work in their life (not only in AGAPE) and other related docs, the total of 107 pages of reports), so that what was paid to the pension fund for each employee to be considered when they get pension. This was done according to a new law and Naghash will be the first one on our staff to get that pension. When other employees apply, we'll not have to do this again. We'll just submit the yearly reports for each employee starting from 2009 (some 15-17 reports depending on how many staff members we'll have that year including the CEC staff, in addition to other regular yearly reports we submit to revenue and other gov. departments). The deadline for this is March 31, but we submitted reports earlier, so that Naghash didn't lose his February pension. - I am sorry, but I have had no time for December, January newsletters, financial reports and 2008 updates. When I am in Berdzor busy with all those projects, I don't have time even to "clean my nose" as people used to tell here. In other words, I don't belong to myself :-).
- Being in Yerevan only gives me time to work on computer. I had planned to be here by March, so I had time to fulfill part of those tasks. And then in March we'll have again distribution project, this time for the villagers. So, please find attached December, January and February financial reports.
- I'll work on newsletters and updates this week and send to you.
- Everyone is doing well here and sending their warmest greetings to you!
Blessings,
Nara
